Bill Watterson retired Calvin & Hobbes, and seemingly himself, on 31st December 1995 when the last strip was published - and then Watterson published nothing further, Calvin & Hobbes or otherwise! Until now. Nearly 28 years later and Watterson’s follow-up has just been released: The Mysteries.
In the same way that Calvin & Hobbes looked like nothing more than a childish comic about the adventures of a kid and his imaginary friend, but could also surprise you by exploring philosophy and other adult ideas, The Mysteries is presented in the same format as most children’s picture books. One page has a line of text, maybe two, and the opposite page is a full page illustration. Except, the story is not something most kids would find interesting, or perhaps understand, and John Kascht’s art is a long way from anything you’d see in the kid’s section!
The story is fairy tale-ish. Set initially in Ye Olden Days with castles and knights, a kingdom is a-feared of The Mysteries in the woods - that is until one is captured and the people see that they are nothing that scary after all. Or are they…
I think it’s about the hubris of humanity. About how we believe ourselves untouchable by the natural world once we find out a great deal about it - and then realise we don’t know as much as we think we do, and that actually we’re still vulnerable to it, until it’s too late. Basically, it’s a fable about climate change.
Kascht’s art looks almost like photographic black and white pictures of posed clay models. The style reminds me of the late, great Richard Corben, who also drew photorealistic humanoid figures that were warped grotesques for the most part. Not that I didn’t like it but I wasn’t that impressed with Kascht’s art having seen similar neo-gothic comic art by Corben, Thomas Ott, et al. before (apparently Watterson contributed to the art too, but I’m not familiar enough with Kascht’s style to tell what Watterson contributed exactly).
The climate change message is a mundane one - Watterson adds nothing to the idea that humanity has done irreparable damage to the environment and is now reaping the consequences - and the story is too spare and flat to be all that engaging. I’m also not exactly sure what Watterson’s suggesting - I get that there are downsides to progress but there are upsides too. Our way of life today, while damaging to nature, is vastly better than it was in the past - would it be better if we were still a superstitious and ignorant bunch jumping at shadows? I don’t think so.
The Mysteries is unheralded - I didn’t expect to ever see another book by Watterson, who I thought had completely lost interest in publishing altogether - so I won’t say it was underwhelming given the timeframe because who was waiting for this? Not me anyway. It is a weird follow-up to Calvin & Hobbes though - a generic climate change message presented in a children’s picture book format with haunting adult artwork by another artist in a fairytale aesthetic? Uh… ok. Maybe the biggest mystery of all is why Watterson chose this to be his next (final?) book.
The story and the message were unimpressive, the artwork, while skilful, was similarly unaffecting, and the book overall is too fleeting and shallow to be all that memorable or engaging. I’m sure most Bill Watterson fans will pick this one up out of curiosity, like I did, but, if you do choose to check out The Mysteries, don’t expect much from this rather bland and unsatisfying short book.
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